Organ incentives

Eric Crampton
Were I a Facebook person, I'd be hitting the "Organ donor" button, now apparently active in New Zealand.

Last week New Zealand became the latest to approve a Facebook initiative that allows people to state that they want to be organ donors.

The global scheme works to promote organ donation, by allowing people to create a "life event" on their timeline saying they wish to become a donor.

Family members are still requested to give permission when the time comes, but the Facebook initiative is helpful in promoting discussion of the issue, Facebook's Australia and New Zealand communications and policy manager Mia Garlick said.
I'd want a slightly stronger button indicating LifeSharers membership.

Michelle Robinson's article makes the case for compensating live donors, drawing on a few bits from me. She uses some of the best quotes I'd sent; the full text I'd provided is below.

I'd want a slightly stronger button indicating LifeSharers membership.

Michelle Robinson's article makes the case for compensating live donors, drawing on a few bits from me. She uses some of the best quotes I'd sent; the full text I'd provided is below.

"There are a few reasons for New Zealand's relatively low organ donation rate. To start with, we don't have great awareness campaigns around organ donation. So when people renew their driver's licence, they've not really put much thought into the donation decision, and nothing around the driver's licence scheme really helps to encourage an informed decision. Next, to be eligible to be an organ donor, you have to be in an ICU bed when you die; doctors here seem reluctant to assign a terminal patient to a scarce ICU bed in hopes that the patient's family will consent to donation. Finally, because the driver's licence scheme does not constitute informed consent, doctors feel the need to seek explicit family permission for organ donation at what is the worst possible time for families to be making that kind of decision. So it's no surprise that half of families asked decline that the deceased's organs be made available for transplant."

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{Register to be an organ,eye and tissue donor. To learn how, www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov}